I'm very interested in that actually. I'm often curious what shapes people's perspectives on these issues, particularly if it doesn't align with any obvious incentives. I always thought that you must have family in law enforcement or something, but I'd love to know the actual reason.
* I'm professionally involved in computer security, like you, and have an an amateur interest in the law (I'm considering law school at some point).
* Message board nerds have a lot of weird, wrong beliefs about computer security and the law.
There is a political difference between me and HN: I'm not an anarcho-capitalist (that silly "world's smallest political test" thingy puts me dead center in "left liberal"). But politics have little to do with where I end up on the NSA threads; it's things like not understanding (or really, having even skimmed) NIST crypto standards, or not taking the time to understand what the 4th Amendment means. The things that get me into "trouble" here have more to do with taking the time to actually read primary sources than anything else.
We probably disagree about NSA a lot less than you think we do.